Chocolate and Fire
by Pretty Soldiers
Summary: AU. Axel, unable to figure out what's so intriguing about Roxas, teaches Roxas the secret to being unafraid of fire is not necessarily learning to control it. Rated T for language
1. Leap of Faith

Author's Note: These two scenes are part of a _much _longer fic we are in the process of writing, but thought they could also translate well as a one-shot_ish_ story. Hope you enjoy! Reviews are much appreciated ^_^

Disclaimer: We don't own Axel, Roxas…or anything!

Axel followed silently up the stone stairs, made his breath silent, presence unknown. It was just like doing a mission, except this actually seemed important.

_Important, why? _Honestly, he didn't know – a couple short encounters with this weird blonde kid had left him shaken. And what the hell was the kid doing running up to this clock tower, anyway?

Axel shielded his eyes as he stepped out onto the top of the clock tower – the dying sun glared fiercely, as if trying to stave him away. He forced himself to stare right into the eye of the sun and saw the outline of a boy.

The kid was standing on the edge of the tower, his toes pointed just an edge over. He stared forward into the sun, then his shaggy head tilted down.

"Thinking of jumping?"

The boy turned around, eyes wide and glinting like shards of a mirror. "What are you doing here?"

Axel leaned against the face of the giant clock. _What am I doing here? _"Dunno," he said. "I just followed you. Roxas." It felt important to say his name, say it like it was worthy of its own sentence. For some reason, it was.

"Well, go away," Roxas said, turning back to the sun.

"Tell me," Axel replied, letting the cruel smile shield his actual curiosity, "you thinking of jumping?"

Roxas looked down. "Maybe." He turned suddenly, snapping his whole head at Axel. "What's it to you if I do, huh? Why the hell would you care?"

Axel ran a hand sheepishly through his blood-red hair. "Good question," he admitted. Why did he care? He'd seen people die, people kill, people threaten his own life. Why he would care if this little dipshit was having an emo moment was beyond him.

"'Cause I'd be cheating you out of some sort of fetish-feeding fuck, huh? Is that it?" the kid screamed. "I'm just like another piece of meat to everyone in this damn world! Give me one fucking break in my life and go away!"

"Hold on," Axel said distractedly, holding up one finger and scrunching his eyebrows in concentration. _Why the hell do I care? Hmmm, do I even care? _He looked up at Roxas's face, at the annoyance that hid pain. Axel had never been one to care for people, never actually felt genuine _feeling _for a person that came without purpose. And there certainly was no purpose to care for this temperamental little shit, besides the fact he was pretty darn cute and slightly engaging in a sadistic way. Yet, Axel did care. In fact, it would be pretty sucky if the kid stepped off. Not that he ever would - Axel had seen the faces of suicidal wackos, and this kid certainly did not classify, regardless of how emotionally-damaged he thought he was.

_Why _do _I care? _Axel thought, most disturbed. He flicked his eyes toward the kid who was now trembling in frustration. "Don't give yourself a hernia," Axel muttered under his breath. "Give me a sec, won't you?"

Could it possibly be that Axel cared because there was…_something _in the kid's – Roxas's - eyes? Something in the way he stood, the way he talked, the way he seemed to understand what was going on in Axel's head…

"But dammit, what is that something?" Axel muttered under his breath.

Roxas groaned, looked dangerously close to stamping his foot like a child. _Then you'll accidently fall off and I'll never know what it is, idiot, _Axel thought. Roxas ground his teeth together, ran his hand through his blonde hair, and sighed, "Jesus, are you for real?"

Axel straightened, stiffened in shock. His eyes popped open. _Real? Real?_

Roxas sighed again, stepped off the edge and headed towards the stairs. "Maybe its you who should worry about the hernia. I wasn't going to jump anyway."

_Real…something real…_

"Just interesting to think how the world would be without me…"

_There's something real in the way he looks at way, the way he talks to me. Is…that it?_

"Discovered the world would be just the same…s'not like I'm anything to anyone anyway…I'm nobody. Whatever, don't even know why I'd tell you. I'm not real to you or anything." Roxas began descending the stairs.

Axel snapped into movement. "Hey, wait!" he cried, lurching forward.

Roxas turned, mouth opening slightly.

Axel dashed to him, stood on the top of the stairs and looked him straight in the eye. "No reason to get so emotional, kid. Since you decided today's not your day to become a blonde pancake, how about we…we get a coffee?" He put his hands up in the air like a jailbird. "No tricks, I promise! Just one cup of coffee! Just…just to talk."

Roxas's face changed slightly – instead of confusion there was apprehension. "Wh—"

"And don't damn ask me why I want to talk to you," Axel said, began nudging Roxas down the stairs. "Just because I do, okay?"

"Fine," Roxas said. "One cup."

Axel closed his eyes and smiled, knowing that he was going to order a jumbo.


	2. Untameable

Roxas stood in line at the coffee shop, felt the way the warmth pricked at his cold cheeks, slowly warming him up from top to bottom. The whole café was coloured a soothing orange and filled with the murmur or people huddling over steaming drinks, escaping the dreary November grey. He stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets and looked down at his checkered sneakers, avoiding the gaze of the man beside him.

_It's just one cup of coffee, _Roxas told himself. _Relax, it'll be over soon. Just one cup._

"What'll it be, sweetie?"

"A grande medium roast," Roxas said. He could feel Axel's prying eyes running over him. "What?" he snapped, turning to him.

His smile was poison. "Nothing." There was something behind those knowing eyes. "It's just," Axel said, his smile brimming larger, "that I've seen you here lots of times, kid, and that's the first time you've ever order anything bigger than a tall."

_He watched me in the coffee shop? _"Stalker!"

Axel snorted. "Hardly. My friend works here."

_Does he have to smile like that all the time? _Roxas sneered, turned back to the counter.

"That's $2.19," the barista said, then: "Are you together?"

"No!" Roxas blurted, then flushed. Did he say it too fast, too urgently? Did they look like they were together_? _Oh, god, how did the barista know? _Is it how I'm standing? _Roxas thought. _Too close…yeah, I'm probably too close to him. Or it's Axel! It's his fault – it always is. He's probably looking at me funny. Or is it me? Was I looking at _him _funny? Or did she ask 'cause I ordered a medium and even though I've never been served by her before, someone might have told her that I only order smalls, and she might think that just because I was Axel I ordered a medium and that I ordered a big one 'cause we're only getting one cup – that's what I said, one cup – and I got a bigger one 'cause I want to talk to him, and that's why she thinks I'm _with_ Axel. And she probably heard Axel's tone of voice, so low and raspy and—_

"Come on," Axel said, nudging Roxas in the back.

"Huh?" Roxas said, digging in his pocket for change.

"I got it," Axel said, holding up his own cup, a grande as well.

"When?"

"When you were spacing out." He placed Roxas's coffee in his hands, nudged him out of line.

"Oh, uh, thanks," Roxas muttered and headed towards the condiments station. As he waited for people to finish up at the station, he stared down at his steaming beverage. _The coffee Axel bought me…_

Axel nudged him in the back again. "You really are a space cadent, aren't you?"

Roxas shook his head, flushed, stepped up to the now free station. He stirred in some half and half and sugar. "Aren't you going to put anything in yours?"

"Nah," Axel said, sipping his coffee. "Never seemed to be any milk or sugar around, so I learned to get by without it."

"Well, it's here now," Roxas muttered. He stepped away from the counter and scanned the crowded coffee shop for a seat. A small leather couch was free over by the window. He headed towards it, sunk deep down into the warm depths of it. Roxas couldn't help but smile as Axel occupied himself over at the condiments stations.

Axel sauntered over, and Roxas found himself wondering why Axel always walked like that, confidence and easiness oozing from each step.

"The milk's good, kiddo," Axel said, sat down beside him. "I even put some of that weird chocolate stuff from the shaker on it."

"Is it any good?" Roxas muttered. "Never tried it."

Axel absentmindedly waved his cup in front of Roxas. "Try it."

Slowly, Roxas put down his own cup, took Axel's to his lips. The liquid was hot - burning almost – and the chocolate tasted funny. "It's good," he lied. He wasn't sure if it was good or not, but it was the safe answer.

Axel smiled, got up. Roxas' eyes followed him, watched how his tall, lean body seemed to dance through the packed shop. Axel went to the milk station, picked up something.

_Why does he wear his jeans so low? _Roxas wondered. They were so low you could see the top of his boxers – green ones – but still tight enough that they clung around his—

Roxas looked down at his lap, face burning. He glanced outside, noticed it had begun to sprinkle. He had to admit being inside this shop on the comfy couch with his hot coffee was somewhat comforting, even if he were here with Axel.

"Here." Axel sat down again, palm open. He held out the chocolate sprinkle shaker.

"Uh, thanks," he said. He gave a small shake over his coffee.

"Oh, come on, Rox!" Axel exclaimed. "That's not going to do anything! You gotta give it a good shake, nice and hard!"

"Right…" Roxas shook a little more chocolate onto his coffee, a part of him seriously suspecting Axel knew he didn't like it.

"So, Roxas," Axel said, leaning back, stretching his arms over the back of the couch, "what brought you to Twilight Town?"

Roxas looked outside, considered the whole "I got beat so bad by kids at school that I couldn't even open my eyes, my dad's an alcoholic and my mom pushed me into a china cupboard" spiel a less than-spectacular way to impress Axel on their first date.

Roxas stopped all movement. _Not that this is a date. Because it isn't. It doesn't matter that Axel bought me coffee. It's not a date. Jesus Christ! _Roxas _really _needed to a drink of his coffee. He slurped it: damn hot and caked in that gross, chalky chocolate.

"I guess," Roxas coughed, his voice hoarse, " there just weren't enough sneaky redheaded perverts where I came from."

Axel eyed him from the side without turning his head, a slight smirk pricking at the corner of his mouth. As Axel took his drink to his mouth, Roxas noticed the way Axel's lips curved over the rip of the cup, almost delicately, breathing in the liquid rather than drinking it.

"What about you?" Roxas asked. "Why'd you set your apartment on fire?"

Axel looked way. "You heard about that?"

"Yeah, from Namine. She told me you burned down your apartment and now have to live with her and her brother for a while."

Axel turned to him with a delirious smile on his face. "So you were asking about me?"

"Uh…n-no—" Roxas reddened.

"Chill, Rox," Axel said, leaning in slightly. "And I didn't set my apartment on fire – I set this ugly, old, destroyed armchair on fire…and things got out of hand."

"Why?" Roxas asked, but it wasn't a 'Why the hell would you do something so stupid, you idiot?' like he usually would have delivered. It was a breath of a question, an inquiry to something he really wanted to know.

And, as if Axel sensed this, he turned to Roxas, completely serious.

"I like fire," he said. "I like to watch the way it plays with things, how it tastes their flavours, how you never really know which way it's going to go. I like to watch the flames consume things, how they start out small and then….just _devour _you. You know?"

No, Roxas didn't know, but he nodded anyway. Slowly, Axel reached back, pulled something out of his back pocket. Suddenly, Axel's hand that rested on the back of the couch lurched forward, gripped Roxas' shoulder and moved him close. He brought his other hand and gripped Roxas' wrist.

"Lots of people are afraid of fire," Axel whispered. He released Roxas' wrists, and Roxas saw a lighter in his hand. "Are you?"

"Yes," Roxas said, because it was the truth. "But you're not afraid, are you?"

"No." Axel flicked the lighter to life, brought the flame close to Roxas' coat sleeve. The flame licked the fabric, caught hold.

"Do you know why people are afraid?"

Roxas watched the flame lick his sleeve. "Because its unpredictable. Its something you can't control."

"Exactly."

"S-so," Roxas stammered, determined not to move his arm, no matter how frightened he was of the flame, "the s-secret to not being afraid is to control the fire."

"No," Axel breathed in Roxas' ear, a breath warmer than any sensation Roxas had ever felt. "The secret is to know that fire can't be controlled." Axel reached his hand over the burning sleeve and smothered the flame.

Roxas looked up, met Axel's gaze and saw that beneath the beauty of Axel's emerald eyes, there too was an untamable fire smoldering there.

He shivered, dug his hands in his pockets. His fingers slowly wrapped around the object someone had placed there unknowingly: the chocolate sprinkle shaker.


End file.
